FCPA Case: U.S. v. Kozeny (Bourke)

In July 2009, after a six-week jury trial in the Southern District of New York, Frederic Bourke Jr., co-founder of Dooney & Bourke, was found guilty of making false statements and violating FCPA. Prosecutors alleged that Bourke knew of a plot by Viktor Kozeny to bribe Azerbaijani officials to let Kozeny's investment group buy a stake in the state’s oil company in the late 1990s. Bourke was sentenced by U.S. District Court Judge Shira Scheindin to a year and a day in prison. Judge Scheindin explained her sentence by stating: “After years of supervising this case, it’s still not entirely clear to me whether Mr. Bourke is a victim or a crook or a little bit of both.” On appeal, defense attorneys for Bourke argued that the prosecutors used perjured testimony in order to obtain a conviction. After several unsuccessful appeals to the Second Circuit, Bourke began his sentence in May 2013. Viktor Kozeny, the apparent orchestrator of the scheme, has avoided extradition to the United States by remaining in the Bahamas.